Method of dressing picture surfaces with technique



Aug. 12, 1930.

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METHOD OF DRESSING PICTURE SURFACES WITH TECHNIQUE Filed Nov. "21. 1927 WITNESS LouisWBliss Patented Aug. 12, was

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LOUIS W. BLISS, OF PATERSON, NEW JERSEY METHOD OF DRESSING PICTURE SURFACES WITH TECHNIQUE Application filed November 21, 1927. Serial No. 234,622.

In order to bring out certain effects on a cut for printing a picture the custom has been for the artist who performs the initial or hand-work to leave those effects, known as technique, to be accomplished by some mechanical expedient, it being understood that technique consists of lines, dots or other markings, variously formed and arranged. For example, according to one procedure,

when an artist finishes his hand-work he indicates what part or parts of the ultimate cut are to have the technique applied thereto and what particular technique; then, a photograph having been taken of his hand-work, a

cut is made therefrom; and then the cut is completed by first covering so much thereof as represents the artists hand-work with some protective coating, then subjecting the whole face of the out within the bounds of the 2 0 ultimate picture to the impression of what is in effect a technique-printing plate having its acting face formed to print the selected technique and having an acid-resisting substance as the printing substance thereon, then etching the uncoated but so printed face of the cut, and finally removing both the protective coating and the printing substance, leaving the cut with the artists hand-work thereon and also the technique thereon where and as he indicated it should be. Latterly, another and simpler procedure hasbeen followed which ermits the artist himself to dress the sur ace on which his hand-work appears with technique preparatory to photographing the whole and having a cut made from the resulting negative, this procedure having the advantage that by photographicreduction, affecting incidentally the technique and the hand-work in the same proportion, the artist can suppress any defects in his hand-work. According to this procedure, a transparent sheet, as a film of celluloid, is provided with a coating which afiords some selected technique and is of such a nature that it can be readil removed, as by scraping, and the artist himself, having first suitably secured this technique sheet to the surface on which his hand-work is displayed, then scrapes the technique coating from the sheet everywhere except where it is to appear in the ultimate cut, whereupon his handwork, thus-dressed with the superimposed sheet, is photographed and the cut made from the negative in the regular way. These two procedures represent the nearest approach to my present invention of which I am aware, and in contrast with them my invention pre-' sents certain very important advantages, as will appear.

In the drawings,

Figs. 1 and 2 show two transparent technique sheets with different technique patterns thereon;

Fig. 3 shows the artists hand-work done on a suitable surface;

Fig. 4 shows the same photographing; and

Fig. 5 shows three technique patterns overlapping and illustrates a part of the invention.

Let 1 (Figs. 1 or 2) represent a thin transparent sheet, as of tissue paper, bearing thereon a technique pattern 2; how this technique pattern is borne by the sheet 1 is not material so long as the same is capable of reprodressed, ready for 'duction by the photographic process, but

usually it will be simply printed on the sheet. The artist may have available to him a number of these sheets bearing a variety or" technique patterns; Figs. 1 and 2 show two different technique patterns, but it will be un- "derstood that many others are possible, i. e.,

with their markings, as lines, dots, or what not, having diiferent forms and arrangements. Each sheet may be of any convenient size. Normally the whole area, or nearly so, of the sheet will bear the technique (as within the dotted outline in Figs. 1 and 2), though only a portion of the area is actually shown having the\technique; further the technique will usually consist of markings more closely spaced than in Figs. 1, 2 and 4.

Fig. 3 shows the artists hand-work 3 done on a surface 4, as ofpaper. At 5 is an area in which he wishes to have some chosen tech 9 nique appear in the finished cut.

For this purpose he causes to adhere to such area 5 a sheet 1 bearing the selected technique, leaving thesheet detached elsewhere. Then he cuts through the sheet 1 91 around this area with a suitable knife and removes so much of the sheet as was not made to adhere, i. e., as does not cover area 5, leaving a-tech'nique patch 6 thereon.' If another area, as 7 in Fig. 3, requires technique he follows the same procedure, leaving a patch 8 (Fig. 4) thereon. The whole, when the technique has been thus applied, is now ready for photographing and thereupon for the making of the cut.

The securing is most successfully accomplished if the whole area of the patch is made to adhere to the surface i. This is best done by applying the adhesive rather to said surface than tothe sheet 1, filling in with the adhesive up to the margin, all around, of

the area to be treated with technique.

It will be 'seen that essentially my invention is the method of dressing with technique a surface on which a picture has been prepared by hand-work which consists in securing to said surface within the area thereof which is to be treated with technique (and preferably by applying an adhesive to all of said area) a transparent sheet bearing a technique pattern thereon and so that said pattern itself covers said area and then removing so much of the sheet as is exterior of that area thereof which coincides and conforms with said area of said surface.

My invention possesses all the advantages of the second over the first of the two procedures hereinbefore first outlined and in addition is less expensive, since a suitable printed transparent paper may be used for the technique sheet and what is cut away after each dressing may be utilized in other dressings; smudging or removal of the technique in handling may be avoided since the technique pattern may be applied to the sheet by ordinary printing; the work of dressin the artists hand-work can be accomplis ed with greater facility and expedition; and a secure and close and practically integral relation is possible between each patch and the surface to which it is applied. Further, it is readily possible to provide for placement of different techniques, in practically absolute edge to edge relation, since the work can be done so that two adjoining I technique patches meet directly edge to edge.

As already indicated, artists need different techniques according to the requirements of the ultimate picture and their artistic sense but the variety of available mechanical technique has been heretofore limited to one for each technique pattern. I have found that various picture surfaces can be dressed with different techniques in such manner that the possible number of techniques may ex-' ceed the number of technique patterns'available. This, analyzed, is a matter of the patterns being disposed on transparent sheet material, of placing on each picture surface a pair of such transparent sheets with technique patterns superposed, and of either ,'(1)-fif the patterns used are all identicalarranging the patterns in the different pairs so that the positions of those in any pair relatively to each other is different from that of the patterns of any other pair, or (2) the patterns of any pair being different from each other and as a pair from any other pair. Fig. 5 illustrates this, where one pattern 9 is shown so that one-half of it is superposed on a pattern 10 identical to it'and on apattern 11 different from it. The composite pattern resulting from the superposing of 9 and 10 is different from the pattern of either 9 or 10; if either pattern 9 or'lO be shifted to different positions relatively to the other, rotatively or otherwise, a variety of composite patterns will be produced. On the other hand the composite pattern resulting from superposing 9 and 11 will of course be different from the composite pattern resulting from superposing either of these patterns on some other and different pattern.

As a matter of fact, having a given num-,

ber of technique patterns available I can in this way dress various picture surfaces with techniques whose possible number is many times that of the patterns available.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim is: e

1. The herein described method of dressing with technique a surface on which a picture has been prepared by hand-work which consists in securing to said surface within the area thereof which is to be treated with technique a transparent sheet bearing a technique pattern thereon and so that said pattern itself covers said area, and then removing so much of the sheet as is exterior of that area thereof which coincides and conforms with said area of said surface.

2. The herein described method of dressing with technique a surface on which a picture has been prepared by hand-work which consists in applying an adhesive to said surface within substantially all of the area thereof which is to be treated with technique, then by said adhesive securing to said surface a transparent sheet bearing a technique pattern thereon and so that said pattern itself covers said area, and then removing so much of the sheet as is exterior of that area thereof which coincides and conforms with said area of said surface. i

3. The method of shading designs, comprising, applying an adhesive to a portion of the design to be shaded, placing over the design a shaded transparent sheet to be secured thereto by said adhesive. and cutting away a portion of said sheet to uncover an u11- shaded portion of the design.

In testimony whereof I affix my si ature.

LOUIS W. B ISS. 

